Would you write a dance sequence?

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

I've got scene in "Love is the devil" where one of the characters is going into the scene pretty sad, and he leaves the scene happier, and the catalyst for the change is dancing. The character is a dancer, and that's how he handles stress.

The character is like a advanced student at a secondary school (UK type) with a dance speciality. Think Royal School of Ballet.

Here's the thing; dancing is visual and musical. I'm not too sure how well it would handle in text. I both don't want to bore the reader, but also don't want to just skip over this because dancing is important to this character, and as said it is how he handles stress. You could have a blow by blow of dance moves, which would be entirely different emotionally by music choice.

I mean, having the exact same dance sequence for either Billy Gilman's "You don't you won't" or Marc Bolan's 'Cosmic dancer' would make the emotional load entirely different.

Argh. Maybe I should scratch this scene altogether... but then the character becomes pretty disjointed.

bclement412 · Jan 2, 2010

If the character is really passionate about dancing and it plays an important part in your story, I think you need to keep the scene. It might take you a few writes to get the descriptions beautiful and flowing, but in the end it will pay off. Good luck!

ChainsawLicker · Jan 2, 2010

I wouldn't write each specific step. Maybe something short, poetic and generic though. ie: "twists and turns, plié"...

Jamesaritchie · Jan 2, 2010

Dance scenes are pretty darned common. They're no harder, or no easier, to write than any other scene.

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

bclement412 said:
If the character is really passionate about dancing and it plays an important part in your story, I think you need to keep the scene. It might take you a few writes to get the descriptions beautiful and flowing, but in the end it will pay off. Good luck!

Yeah, it's what he is. It's his way of coping. He's a bit part in this story, but I'm going to lift him into his own story in a bit. He's quite interesting, and I want to know more about him.

ChainsawLicker said:
I wouldn't write each specific step. Maybe something short, poetic and generic though. ie: "twists and turns, plié"...

Well, the scene is from his POV and I guess I'm just a bit frustrated. The process of dancing is his stress relief, so the sequence is sort of important, to show how he can lose himself in it, and go through some sort of catharsis if that's the right word. If you've seen Billy Elliot, I would say the Angry Dance is such a scene where the dance is the coping-process, while the dance with the teacher could be merely referenced.

That's what's tripping me up, I guess.

Jamesaritchie said:
Dance scenes are pretty darned common. They're no harder, or no easier, to write than any other scene.

Yes, people that dance are common, while they chat about doing other stuff. I'm not sure a dance sequence is that common where the dance is the lever for the scene goal achievement. I may be totally wrong, but I can't think of any such scenes.

ChainsawLicker · Jan 2, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
Well, the scene is from his POV and I guess I'm just a bit frustrated. The process of dancing is his stress relief, so the sequence is sort of important, to show how he can lose himself in it, and go through some sort of catharsis if that's the right word. If you've seen Billy Elliot, I would say the Angry Dance is such a scene where the dance is the coping-process, while the dance with the teacher could be merely referenced.

It's in 1st person? That makes it easier, really. You don't have to go into terminology, just describe how he feels as he's doing it. "I saw her face and fell to my knees. My chest ached, and my hands clutched at it as my body twisted in agony."
and such.

kaitie · Jan 2, 2010

Just remember that words can be like music, they can have rhythm. You can convey the feeling in the flow of the words, turn from the normal narrative into a flowing river of words. I know exactly how I'd do it, but can't explain it for the life of me.

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

ChainsawLicker said:
It's in 1st person? That makes it easier, really. You don't have to go into terminology, just describe how he feels as he's doing it. "I saw her face and fell to my knees. My chest ached, and my hands clutched at it as my body twisted in agony."
and such.

It's 3rd person limited, from his POV. I'll have to figure out a way, I guess.

kaitie said:
Just remember that words can be like music, they can have rhythm. You can convey the feeling in the flow of the words, turn from the normal narrative into a flowing river of words. I know exactly how I'd do it, but can't explain it for the life of me.

Hahahaha, I hesitate to admit it but I did make a disastrous attempt to write it in sonette-form, which I happily never even CTRL-Vd into the ms.

kaitie · Jan 2, 2010

LOL. I couldn't write a sonnet to save my life. Well, not a good one anyway. I actually am terrible at that sort of thing, and poetry, but I'm good with rhythm and pacing. It's just one of those things that inherently makes sense to me, but that I can't explain. Sorta frustrating actually.

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

kaitie said:
LOL. I couldn't write a sonnet to save my life. Well, not a good one anyway. I actually am terrible at that sort of thing, and poetry, but I'm good with rhythm and pacing. It's just one of those things that inherently makes sense to me, but that I can't explain. Sorta frustrating actually.

One of the things I'm thinking about is using "experimental writing", but that can sort of jarr on the reader. I tend to skip parts like that in books, and it feels like the writer is showing off. What that means I can't explain now, I'd have to show it. I'll make an attempt and put it in the SYW.

Kweei · Jan 2, 2010

kaitie said:
Just remember that words can be like music, they can have rhythm. You can convey the feeling in the flow of the words, turn from the normal narrative into a flowing river of words. I know exactly how I'd do it, but can't explain it for the life of me.

This. Words are like music. I love that!

For the OP, I would say if it's important for character and/or plot, then you probably want to keep the scene. Write it as best you can and then you can always go back when editing to make it flow

LOG · Jan 2, 2010

*shudders*
No.

Anon76 · Jan 2, 2010

To the OP:

What you are thinking of is totally doable.

You already state that the character will move from sad to happy on the emotional arc. Now you just have to decide how that will go about happening. Will the character start out just flowing to the music, then brighten? Probably not. I'm sure it will involve a rollercoaster journey as the character's thoughts travel from one thing to the next. Some sad, some not so bad, some perhaps downright angry.

Now you just need to find a piece of music that shows the changes in tempo that you desire to match those mood swings. Reference the piece, then change your use of words when describing the character's movements and thoughts during those sections to fit the tempo. At times the character may pause or stop his motions abruptly based on what is going on in his head. And sometimes there are missteps in his dance for this very reason.

I don't know if that helps any, but I will say I have a scene where my historical heroine vents her anger on practice targets with her sword. Swordplay is a comfort to her. I don't find that scene so much different from what you want to achieve.

kaitie · Jan 2, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
One of the things I'm thinking about is using "experimental writing", but that can sort of jarr on the reader. I tend to skip parts like that in books, and it feels like the writer is showing off. What that means I can't explain now, I'd have to show it. I'll make an attempt and put it in the SYW.

I read a Dean Koontz book once, don't for the life of me remember which one, where the villain was a fan of haiku. About halfway through the book, I started noticing random haiku all throughout the work. It was pretty cool, actually. I'd love to know if it was intentional or not. Like maybe he had just spent so much time thinking of them that he just subconsciously started adding them into his writing, but if it was intentional it was pretty darn awesome.

benbradley · Jan 2, 2010

If you DO write each and every specific step or (perhaps better, so you don't bore readers who know nothing of ballet) some portion the steps, keep in mind that dance choreography is copyrighted just like text, so you couldn't describe the exact dance scene used in a copyrighted musical or ballet. You could say the dance is to an existing musical piece but you would have to come up with your own dance moves.

But with dance being so important to a major character, as a reader I'd fully expect a scene like this.

Madison · Jan 2, 2010

Just like in make-out scenes, focus on emotion more than action-by-action description. What really matters is not the actual way he dances, but how it makes him feel.

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

I've referenced the "angry dance" in Billy Elliot above. This is it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jens3h3eXH0

It is pivotal to the character, and shows Billy coping with the stress of his situation. It's all happening in his head - he himself is standing on a table listening to a fight, of course. But it's sort of the same thing in my scene.

EDIT: Those of you that can tell the difference just have to ignore the slight jarring from the fact that whenever Tony (Billy's older brother) breaks out in Manchester dialect when he's angry, even if this happens near Newcastle.

Lady Ice · Jan 2, 2010

Don't write it like a step by step. We don't care whether she does a rond du jambe- we care about her emotions, so use moves sparingly. Focus on what it feels like, not what it looks like.

Libbie · Jan 2, 2010

I'd write about his feelings changing as he danced, but I wouldn't describe the dances he was doing, or anything like that.

kuwisdelu · Jan 2, 2010

Dancing is like sex.

Write it like sex.

This advice is not as ridiculous as it sounds.

Jamesaritchie · Jan 2, 2010

Just mention the name and rhythm of the of the dance to give readers a mental image. A dance scene is not music, it's words, like an other scene, and like any other scene, you put in just enough detail to let the reader form a mental image, and fill in the blanks.

Anything can be described, whether it's a dance scene or a fight scene. Movement is movement.

kuwisdelu · Jan 2, 2010

And feeling is feeling.

jasonleeward · Jan 2, 2010

Dance Sequences

Writing dance scenes in fiction is no different than any other scene and can be engaging to the reader. Be sure to keep it relevant to the story and characters and write it well. Doing so will make the scene flow as smoothly as the characters in the dance scene.

Maxinquaye · Jan 2, 2010

kuwisdelu said:
Dancing is like sex.

Write it like sex.

This advice is not as ridiculous as it sounds.

Jamesaritchie said:
Just mention the name and rhythm of the of the dance to give readers a mental image. A dance scene is not music, it's words, like an other scene, and like any other scene, you put in just enough detail to let the reader form a mental image, and fill in the blanks.

Anything can be described, whether it's a dance scene or a fight scene. Movement is movement.

Kuwi is on to something there. In his terms, this is a masturbation scene where the character can' get it up at first.

THanks for that hook, kuwi. I think I need to become more filthy minded...

kuwisdelu · Jan 2, 2010

Maxinquaye said:
Kuwi is on to something there. In his terms, this is a masturbation scene where the character can' get it up at first.

THanks for that hook, kuwi. I think I need to become more filthy minded...

Most of the same rules apply.

The same way you wouldn't want to write "insert rod A into slot B" describing "swing foot A perpendicular to foot B" is equally boring.

Make your language sensual, but don't overdo it. Focus on both the physical feelings and the emotions rather than just describing the movement, but don't get lost in thought. Don't neglect the movement, though. And don't neglect his physical response, either. We do want to know what's happening, but how it feels is most important. Don't underestimate the musicality and motion imbued in strong language.

Would you write a dance sequence?

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